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In a groundbreaking legal battle, the Biden administration, along with families from Tennessee and Kentucky, is urging the Supreme Court to reconsider recent state laws restricting gender-affirming care for minors. The laws, enacted last spring, impose limits on medical treatments for transgender teens, specifically targeting puberty blockers and hormone therapy. The legal challenge argues that these restrictions violate both the equal protection and due process clauses of the 14th Amendment.

The laws in Tennessee and Kentucky, though similar, have sparked controversy by prohibiting medical treatments that allow minors to align with their gender identity. Both states face a two-fold challenge in court. First, opponents argue that the laws discriminate based on sex by permitting the use of puberty blockers and hormone therapy for conforming to birth-assigned sex while denying the same treatments to transgender minors. Second, they contend that these prohibitions infringe upon parents’ rights to make medical decisions for their children.

The Biden administration has intervened in support of the challengers, emphasizing the equal protection violations of national importance. Federal district courts in Tennessee and Kentucky initially blocked the laws, but a divided panel of the 6th Circuit later ruled in favor of the states, allowing them to enforce the laws. The court held that the restrictions do not discriminate on the basis of sex and that the states’ concerns regarding medical involvement in minors’ development justify the laws.

Three key cases – United States v. Skrmetti, L. W. v. Skrmetti, and Jane Doe 1 v. Kentucky ex rel. Cameron – now seek the Supreme Court’s review to reverse the 6th Circuit’s ruling. The challengers argue that the Supreme Court’s precedent in Bostock v. Clayton County, which established that firing gay and transgender employees violates federal employment discrimination laws, underscores that gender identity distinctions are inherently based on sex. Moreover, they claim that the laws infringe upon the due process clause, citing the Supreme Court’s history of striking down state restrictions on parents’ rights to direct their children’s lives.

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Source: https://www.scotusblog.com/2024/01/biden-administration-families-ask-justices-to-roll-back-state-restrictions-on-transgender-care-for-minors/